Sounds of the Prairie

Chapter 10 Colorado

I could have slept against Essie's warmth forever, having it radiate against me while wrapped in our cocoon of heavy wool blankets, that is if a noise had not awoken me from my peaceful sleep. The rustling of tree limbs hitting each other had me propping up just enough to look around me and I could see Tuckers head doing the same. He mouthed to me asking what is it but I shook my head unable to really see anything, the fire all but cinders now and no use to us in the pitch black of night. Thankfully, we were both light sleepers because Joe and Essie were still out cold from the looks of it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the brief outline of a person and all of the hairs upon my arms stood up. Whoever it was must have tripped because a deep voice whispered "Shit."

My hand slipped quietly beneath the layers of blankets to reach where my gun should have been, only to come up empty and my stomach flipped when I realized my gun was not there but still hanging back on my saddle. Forgetting to grab it was a careless mistake. I looked to Tucker to have my hopes confirmed by his gun being pointed out in front of him at whoever was coming from the expanse of trees. Every part of me fought with itself in that moment. Half of me wanted to roll over onto Essie and guard her for whatever good it would do but I also did not want to wake her up and have her panic. My eyes did not leave the stalky form as it prowled towards us while the persons head moved back and forth scanning around. I heard the cock of Tuckers gun and saw the stranger stop moving, frozen still in their tracks.

"Can we help you Mr.?" Tucker whispered to the man who replied, "If you know what is good for ya, you'll stop following us."

"And who is this us?" Tucker responded but the stranger said nothing, only flipped around and disappeared into the trees making me wonder if he was there at all. It only took one look at Tucker to know he had been and one look at Essie for me to question what in the hell we had been thinking. 

"Do you want me to follow him?" Tucker whispered as he carefully uncocked his gun.

"No," I said with a shake of my head, "It is too dangerous and we don't know if it was just him or if there are more of them out there."

"You think it was one of the men we met on the trail? Voice sounded a bit familiar." I pondered his question; I could not really be sure since all I saw was the outline of the body. If only the fire had not gone out, we could have known.

"I am not sure. I would bet money that it was though." I laid back down while pulling my wife as tight as I could into my side. The reality of what could have happened if we had not woken up petrified me. The rest of the night, I couldn't sleep or even get peace of mind enough to close my eyes again. I glanced towards the opposite hill side again but the fire that had been there earlier was already snuffed out. The following morning I felt incredibly irritable. Even the slightest annoyance made me want to grind my teeth together. The loud sound of Tucker chomping down his breakfast to the rustling of Joe helping Essie load up the bedrolls and cooking utensils. I had never been the type of person who did well on lack of sleep but today it was worse than normal. "Are you alright?" Essie's voice whispered against my ear, just about making me damn near jump out of my boots. The look she gave me was full of worry but when she tried to reach for me, I shrugged her hand off.

"I am fine."

"Clearly not." She replied as she carefully tucked her loose curls up into her bonnet and tied it into place upon her head. Even from her attempt to hide them a few stray wisps of curls came peeking out giving her a more playful demeanor despite the look on her face.

"It is nothing for you to be worrying about." This was not the time for me to make her concerned and have her go off halfcocked trying to protect all of us. She sighed and leaned up to kiss my cheek, even though it was a quick show of affection it still had my defenses melting. "I wish you would tell me. I know when something is different."